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Hi everyone so I'm waiting for Grand Coral to update their contract and resend it over to me and I'll have my reception booked, have my accommodations booked, hair and makeup my own, flowers from DAC or similar, table set up Euphoria, dj taken care of, still need a wedding cake but for me I could totally make a boxed cake( yes I said that.) But there is still one thing... An officiant! If you google officiants you will see Noe Camacho. I tried reaching out to him multiple times with no luck. I found his Facebook site ( yes I'm thorough, have planned many events for friends; I'm crafty) he apologized said he was so busy n would contact me this week. Still nothing... At this point I have a bad feeling. If he's that busy now, will he make my day feel rushed? For me the ceremony is the most important part. The emotion the intimacy the promise. Family encircled, feet rooted down onto the earth, no jewelry, no precessional music although I'm planning something else instead, but the real raw union of two people for life. I want my officiant to understand that. If any brides feel the same way then, who are you using to officiant your wedding? It would be an English speaking symbolic ceremony. ( we are legally married but haven't exchanged vows.. We want this to feel real!) Thanks!!!!!!!!!! Lisa
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Hi everyone so I'm waiting for Grand Coral to update their contract and resend it over to me and I'll have my reception booked, have my accommodations booked, hair and makeup my own, flowers from DAC or similar, table set up Euphoria, dj taken care of, still need a wedding cake but for me I could totally make a boxed cake( yes I said that.) But there is still one thing... An officiant! If you google officiants you will see Noe Camacho. I tried reaching out to him multiple times with no luck. I found his Facebook site ( yes I'm thorough, have planned many events for friends; I'm crafty) he apologized said he was so busy n would contact me this week. Still nothing... At this point I have a bad feeling. If he's that busy now, will he make my day feel rushed? For me the ceremony is the most important part. The emotion the intimacy the promise. Family encircled, feet rooted down onto the earth, no jewelry, no precessional music although I'm planning something else instead, but the real raw union of two people for life. I want my officiant to understand that. If any brides feel the same way then, who are you using to officiant your wedding? It would be an English speaking symbolic ceremony. ( we are legally married but haven't exchanged vows.. We want this to feel real!) Thanks!!!!!!!!!! Lisa
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I have set my wedding date for June 2 2015, but am struggling with the most important part! Getting in contact with anyone from Grand Coral beach club. I called the number on the website and that's the sales office for the condos- I emailed them and heard nothing. It looks like a beautiful place. My wedding is on a Tuesday so I hope I able to get a great deal. I simply could not accept a packaged beach resort wedding. We have 2 children and are inviting only our immediate family and a few friends! An intimate wedding reception is very important and a reception next to the pool in private outdoors is also important, no sand for reception and nothing I doors! Grand coral is the perfect spot! Anyone have contacts? My email is [email protected] Or pm me here! Thanks!!
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I just wanted to share my BEAUTIFUL barefoot sandals and hair comb that I had custom made by Chelsea at http://www.redibychelsea.com/ I ABSOLUTELY LOVE them!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!! They are SOOOOO blingy!!!!
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Hey Ladies, I am scheduled to be married at Playacar Palace in July, 2014. I was having a really difficult time finding a photographer that felt right, as it turns out we have one in our wedding party so that worked out well but as for dj/lighting... that's becoming the final last detail I just can't seem to nail down. Any brides have any suggestions? We are having out reception on the deck that they have on the beach so I'm thinking I will need quite a bit of lighting... anyone have a reception in this area in the past or planning one in the future? Where is everyone else having their reception and what type of audio/visual package are you going with? Any other outside vendors or suppliers that you have tracked down and found useful? I appreciate any advice or info anyone cares to share! Thanks so much ladies
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I'm getting married in July, 2014 at Valentin Imperial in Riviera Maya. I'm completely stressed out and confused with what to do with the photographer. the onsite resort photographer looks like they take good pictures, however, they are very pricey. If I'm going to pay a lot for photos and a video, should I venture out and hire a different photographer? If so, can anyone recommend a great photographer who captures stunning pictures of the tropical beauty of Mexico as well as of us? We would like something natural and artistic - the photographer needs to be very personable and friendly. PS: I have one month left to find my photographer and my neurosis is killing me please help, brides!
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So I made these using Vistaprint... What do you think ladies???? Yay or Nay???
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Found these today!! I'm still researching cheapest prices.. But I found these at http://www.logobarproducts.com/ 25 personalized shot glasses for 82.50... I'll continue to look around, but I wanted to share anyways!!! Happy Planning!!!
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Hi Everyone, I have recently got engaged, and just starting to get to grips with this site, I am lucky enough to actually live in cancun, so It wont be as much of a nightmare for me as I guess for alot of 'real' destination bride, however as i'm sure you are all aware the web content for alot of mexican places especially the smaller non chain venues etc is sometimes non-existent so even though I live here I find this site so helpful! I am already so excited that In a year from now I will be a MRS or Senora to be precise, H2B is Mexican. I need suggestions for venues, hiring a luxury chauffer car from the church to the venue, and also If people think its absolutely necessary to get a wedding planner, I actually really enjoy the planning, so I might go without, especially since I live here, in return for everyones help I can help with local knowledge etc, I am also going to try and view alottttttt of possible venues so ill upload lots of images for people to see, I am a professional wedding photographer so choosing my photographers is going to be a task allllll of its own, I have already looked at over 30companies..... oh well thats me. get in touch if you have any hints or if you need an inside scoop on somewhere, also I am available for local cake tasting haha Bliss2be
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UGGGHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT LADIES!!!! NONE, ABSOLUTELY NONE OF MY SO'S FAMILY IS ATTENDING OUR WEDDING!!!! NONE!!! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! We told our families our destination wedding plans last October!! For our January 2015 wedding in Mexico!!! We knew that our some of our family members were going to have to save up! His brother agreed to be his BM and which I should mention is his ONLY groomsmen! Then just sent us a FB message telling us he wouldn't be able to attend--even tho he saved up for a cruise that he is going on next month!!! Not even a phone call!! His younger sister really can't afford the cost, which we totally understand, but we offered to pay for 50% of the 1300 and she just said she didn't want to even try to save up the additional money!! If my older brother was getting married, I'd be sure to figure out how to save 700 bucks to attend! And most depressing -- his dad!! His dad, just said so nonchalantly that he'd have to decline because he didn't have any desire to leave the US! WHAT!!!??? (HIs mother is a different story, she just can't go because of health reasons and it's not worth the risk... But we are having a videographer and I'm designing a sign that says "We Love you Mom" that we will have the photographer and videographer get shots of.... SO that doesn't upet me...) and his parents are divorced, so the dad isn't staying to care for the mom-- just an FYI. SO, I don't mean to sound like a giant jerk, but it's really depressing!!! I hate that he won't have any family to share our special day with... It puts a damper on father/daughter and mother/son dances... We'll miss out on pics... I'll feel terrible taking special pics with my mom and dad and then him not having any!! It makes me so sad to think about!! And I realize that low attendance is a risk you run with a destination wedding and we're ok with that... But you just expect your parents and close family to be able to come if they can afford it.... AM I terrible for feeling this way??!!! I just feel so horrible for my SO!!!
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Okay ladies, I've been reading through these planning threads and it inspired me to start one to keep myself more organized!! I'll try my best to keep my thoughts as organized as possible! A little background info: The Groom to be: Kyle Derby Born 03/1975 SO handsome in his uniform!! The Bride to be: Bambi Roberts Born 01/1984 The other love in my life--my fur baby Deuce! First things first--- Our love story.... Bear with me on this one... I'll make it as short as possible! Kyle and I met around 2008(ish)... When we met, we were both married to other people... Him to his ex-wife who he'd been with since 19 and me with my ex husband who I'd been with since I was 15. We met Kyle in Pensacola Fl, as both he and my ex are in the Navy. They became friends and so began our friendship. Let's now fast forward to 2010... My ex and I got transferred to another duty station In Jacksonville Florida and as part of Navy life, you just kinda lose track of people (sad but true). In 2011 my ex got sent on an 8 month deployment-- long story short-- he decided that I was no longer what he wanted and on the day after his homecoming he told me he wanted a divorce. As many of you can imagine, this was a very difficult time in my life.. Now here comes the happily ever after!!! FFW to March of 2012 Kyle and I got back into touch... We began communicating on FB quite often and I came to discover that he was in basically the same situation and was also going through the big "D".... We were able to talk and confide in each other about the difficulties and sadness... We became very close... One day Kyle asked if he could come visit--he was still stationed in Pensacola, which is about a 4 hour drive from Jacksonville... I hesitantly agreed... I was just afraid of what may come! He came that weekend and we hung out and had so much fun together! It was the first time in a very long time that I had felt happy again! Kyle kept coming to visit as often as he could and our friendship turned into becoming best friends... We spoke on the phone for hours and hours daily and saw each other as often as possible!! I moved to Nebraska to be near family and Kyle got transferred to San Diego... We made the long distance thing work and we have been together ever since!! We are more in love now than we have ever been and I am so happy to me marrying the absolute LOVE of my life--my true soul mate!!! I really am marrying my best friend!!! I wholeheartedly believe that this was our destiny... We both needed the struggles of our first marriages to become who we both are today! Kyle would visit as often as possible and I was more than happy to fly to sunny San Diego for a visit... We made it work... It has been difficult at times, I won't lie, but we have worked through everything and are SO SO SO in love!!! We both really thought we'd never find another love.... Kyle asked me to marry him on new years eve of 2012 at "our bench" on a walking path along a lake in Omaha Nebraska. It was so sweet and romantic, and totally my style-- intimate and personal!! We've had a long engagement due to the long distance and also Kyle deployed for an 8 month deployment in January of 2014, but that is coming to an end!!! August of 2014 my love will return and we will be able to live together for the very first time and continue planning our dream beach destination wedding!!! Sorry that was long!! I really tried to consolidate the story without leaving out too many details as to confuse people!!! TO BE CONTINUED!!! I have to get to work! The engagement shoot:
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Planning our wedding for Feb 2015 at the reef coco beach in Mexico as we wanted really small. Would love to know if anyone has been there, any helpful hints or wish I knew's. I am a photographer and have photographed and attended many destination weddings if i can help with anything for anyone else let me know. One thing we are struggling with is linen grey pants can't seem to find a light grey for reasonable any help appreciated. Cheers
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I am trying to find a bag pipper in and around the playa del carmen area I found one online out of Canada but he charges $1700.00 way out of my budget. This is a suprise for my fiance any help would be so appreciated
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I cannot believe that I’m just now starting this planning thread and that my wedding is almost here! My future hubby and I are headed to Mexico in 5 days for our wedding and I can’t wait. First, I want to thank all of the generous and lovely brides who have shared advice and provided support throughout my engagement. I am so grateful for BDW! I am also incredibly grateful to my family and friends, who have been an unending source of support and advice throughout this process. This thread is my way of organizing all of my thoughts and to help other brides, especially those who are thinking about having an off-resort wedding. How we met: Ours is definitely a 21st century relationship: we met online in early 2010. I was on my second round of Match.com and was close to cancelling my subscription again when I saw that someone had winked at me—LOL. We talked and found out that we had an amazing number of things in common, including similar religious upbringings, ethnic backgrounds (several of our parents hail from the Caribbean), hobbies, and a love of food. We traveled back and forth long-distance from Chicago, IL to Madison, WI for over a year until I got a job offer back east. As luck would have it, my fiancé ran into a coworker who told him about a job opportunity in the same city—and he moved before I did! The engagement (you can get the long version from our website): In spite of the fact that I’ve never been one of those girls to dream about the perfect proposal, I have watched enough proposal-related shows that I thought I could NEVER be surprised. My fiancé knew that the only was he could surprise me was to NOT do the typical thing (LOL). On January 31st, 2014, he called me and casually asked me if I wanted to go to dinner. The staff at the restaurant was REALLY nice that night, which should have tipped me off! Now, I love this place, but I’d describe their service as polite(ish) but often brusque. It’s also a loud Italian restaurant—not exactly your romantic French establishment (said in my best Frasier Crane voice). After a yummy dinner, he asked me if I remembered what he gave me on our first date. I said: “Oh, flowers and candy..so cute but so cliché.” (You’re probably thinking right now that I’m the worst, and you’d be right!) He laughed and then the manager brought over flowers and candy. Those of you who know me know that my next move was to try to dig into the candy. He said: “Will you PLEASE stop for a second!” At that point, genius that I am, I started to realize what was going on. I’m pretty sure that he said a bunch of wonderful things and talked about how much he loved me, but I started hyperventilating and crying. Hilariously, there was this large group of people sitting next to us commenting the whole time. “Shh..I think he’s PROPAWSING!” “I think she’s gonna say yes!” It was like being on a sitcom! Decision 2013: Where to have the wedding: I went back and forth quite a bit on where to have the wedding. And by ‘where’, I just mean narrowing down the city/country! My fiancé just wanted to get married ASAP—LOL. I wasn’t happy with the choices where we live or in my hometown, given our budget. None of them called to me at all. Then I remembered that some of my high school friends had recently had destination weddings and reached out to them for advice. After talking to a few travel agents and a wedding planner, I had narrowed my choices to St. Lucia and Riviera Maya. (We were definitely not having this wedding in the Caribbean, as we knew there would be a few too many family members on the guest list!) Ultimately, Riviera Maya won out because it was a cost-effective option that was easy for family and friends to reach. FYI: I will be organizing my 5-year vow renewal in St. Lucia, so everybody get ready!! Just a heads up for brides: the people that are supposed to be there will make it. Many of the friends (and family) that I was SURE would be at the wedding are not coming. It was upsetting at first, but I am thrilled about the 28+ guests that will be there celebrating with us. Their love and support for us makes this day all the sweeter. The Wedding Location: After FINALLY deciding to get married in Riviera Maya, I started looking around for resorts. I found some beautiful options, but quickly realized that good food, privacy and flexibility were both far more important to me than I had previously realized. My planner and I (Joyce Mnguni, of Dream Weddings) had decided on the Grand Coral Beach club for my wedding day. I was completely excited, until she called me and told me that they had instituted a new $2000 site fee!!! I’m sure it had absolutely NOTHING to do with their little feature in Destination Weddings Magazine, but I digress. Anyway, I had previously dismissed the Blue Venado Beach Club as too rustic for my tastes. However, seeing this wedding from Del Sol photographed in this location helped me to see Blue Venado with a new set of eyes. Blue Venado was cost-effective, private, had a reputation for great food, and would allow me to have the wedding that I wanted. So I ended up going with this location. Source: Blue Venado Beach Club Website The Resort: Although we chose to have my wedding off-resort, we knew that many guests would want an all-inclusive experience so they wouldn’t have to travel to find food, etc. Our resort, the NOW Jade is a bit far from our wedding venue (about 45 minutes to 1 hour), but it was cost-effective for our guests, the food is supposed to be pretty good, and it has lots of child-friendly activities. (Note for future brides: the friends who are coming are leaving their children at home as far as I know! So pick the resort that YOU want for your wedding.) Source: NOW Jade Riviera Cancun website The Planner: Joyce Mnguni of Dream Weddings I will have a lot more to say in my review, but I have to tell future brides here that they cannot go wrong with Joyce. I’ve raved about her elsewhere here on the boards, but she has been a lifesaver. She’s gone with the flow for some of my crazier ideas, provided me with information on lots of options, and reined me in on spending money where I didn’t need to. I also think she *gets* the Afro-Caribbean aesthetic/boho chic vibe of my wedding in a way that many other planners likely could not. I am very grateful for her! Photographer: Chad Pennington of Sobitart Photography I think that you realize very quickly what your deal breakers are. For me, excellent photography was one of them—to the point where I moved the videography budget into photography. I needed a photographer who was comfortable with photographing people of color on a regular basis and could capture moments, rather than just doing staged types of shots. I only seriously considered two photographers/companies. The first was Del Sol. They really do have great customer service and their work truly speaks for itself. The second was my photographer, Chad Pennington of Sobitart Photography. He was a second shooter for a childhood friend’s wedding, and I could NOT stop looking at the pictures. The primary photographer’s work was excellent as well, but Chad had some pictures in his portfolio that moved me and all of my friends beyond words (like this one). We were thrilled with our engagement shoot (check it out here!) and can’t wait to work with him on our wedding day. Save the Dates: One thing that is awesome and wonderful about weddings is that you will find that you have amazing wonderful people in your life that will rise to the occasion and help out wherever and whenever they can. One of my friends came with me to a bridal show (!) AND while we were there, told me that she would design my invitations/stationary. Here are our STD’s inspired by the beauty of the Riviera Maya: The invitations: The invites were also a labor of love. I used up about 90% of my DIY mojo assembling these invites, but we got SO many compliments! I had pinned an invite that I really liked on Pinterest, but they were insanely expensive and the materials were as well. On a trip to JoAnn’s our lives were changed by a sales associate that showed us my new favorite crafting material: burlap paper stacks. Ladies and gents, these really are fabulous! If you like the idea of using burlap but don’t want to deal with all of the fraying, these are the ticket! We also used twine from the dollar store to pull everything together. Here are my invites, and I will also post another easy DIY project or two using the burlap paper and twine. The dress: As you might imagine, finding the dress was quite a process! I probably went to at least 8 stores, some with my mom and godmother, some with my good male friend, and several on my own. I swooned over Jenny Packham and Vera Wang dresses, but I knew they weren’t in the budget. I finally found an inexpensive J. Crew dress, the Arabelle, that I thought would fit the bill, but my godmother put her foot down and vetoed it! LOL The funny thing is, the dress that I ended up choosing at a shop all by myself was a perfect combination of the first dress that I ever tried on (San Patrick Eresma) and the J. Crew dress, the Arabelle. I just love it! Here is the dress, the Pronovias Fabula. As my seamstress notes, it *looks* simple, but the design is absolutely not simple. She basically told me that she was used to seeing a lot of bling on dresses, and that mine was a refreshing change. My fashionista designer sister loves this dress as well: Source: Preowned Wedding Dresses website I bought this dress as a floor sample, and the saleslady and seamstress told me not to lose ANY weight. Well, I needed to and did lose quite a bit of weight and inches, so I had a great seamstress alter the dress for me. (Future bride tip: find a good seamstress outside of the bridal shop for your alterations. I used one recommended by a local bridal consignment shop.) Accessories: Bridal Hanger: I went back and forth with myself about getting one of the bridal hangers. At this point, I realized that I wasn’t willing to pay the high shipping, especially for a rush order. Plus, I wanted something a little different. I came across a tutorial for a sequined hanger, bought the materials, whipped this out really quickly using an old hanger (it really is easy to do and I will post the directions if someone wants them): It’s not perfect, but I think it came out pretty well for my first time! Thanks in part to this website, I started entering more and more bridal contests. One of the things that I won is a gorgeous handmade headpiece from UK designer Yelena Smirnova. She kindly offered to make up my choice, the Rosalie hair comb in all cream: Source: Yelena Accessories, Etsy I also decided to whip up a small birdcage veil to use with this; I just have to attach the comb. (Note: this is SO easy and far cheaper than buying a simple birdcage veil. I will post a tutorial later.) Jewelry: I originally got the J. Crew lattice necklace below to wear when I thought I would be going with the J. Crew Arabelle dress. I will have to post later on this, as my mom and sister have vetoed the necklace as inappropriate for this dress! And I got it on sale and everything! *sad face* Any suggestions from my fellow BDW brides would be great, because the clock is a tickin’! Source: J. Crew website The shoes: You would not believe how hard it is to find high metallic wedges for a wedding! I finally found my shoes on zappos.com, Badgley Mishka Kole in silver: Source: Zappos website Maid of Honor: I only gave my MOH a general color scheme, and she ran with it (but gave me the final veto). I will have to post her actual dress later (from J. Crew), but here is the color, which I love! Groom: The groom…refused to let me see what he’s wearing, so it’ll be quite a surprise for me! (Don’t worry, I made sure that a fashion-forward friend was with him to guide his selections.) Best Man: I have a general idea of what his suit looks like, but I’ll see the whole look at the wedding too! LOL (You can see how laid back I am about what other folks are wearing! As long as it looks good, I’m good!)
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"Give me a minute, I'm good. Give me an hour, I'm great. Give me six months, I'm unbeatable." - Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith (A-Team 2010) A-Team is one of my favourite movies. The movie resonates closely with my love for planning things and when an plan comes together. I wouldn't say I'm unbeatable, but I can say I'm relentless. I don't expect anyone will read this thread, rather it serves as my "memoir". My wedding is going to happen exactly 8 months from now so I think it is about time that I start talking about it. Concept: The Wedding Ok, background: My fiance and I were both born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada when we were around 9. We went to summer camp together ( although we can't remember each other, our mutual friend swear we were both in the camp) that year. We went to the same high school and became a couple by Grade 12. Marriage in my opinion is nothing more than a legal/religious documentation. Couples can get married and divorce faster than a meal (Britney Spears anyone?). What is more important should be how a couple can have a lasting and loving relationship for years onward. Anyways, I am not the one seeking out a wedding since a) Marriage is over-rated (see above) and it is waaaay too expensive for me and I rather put the money in travelling or in my home than blow it all in one day. People say to me, "Weddings doesn't have to be expensive." To which I say, yes, it doesn't have to be expensive if you have it in a park and invite close friends and family and then cook a home meal. However, this goes back to a) and I don't see a point of why we need further announcement to my close friends and family when we have been together for the PAST 10 YEARS (now 14). Then there are people who tells me that they get a lot of gifts from family and friends so their weddings weren't that expensive. Well, first of all, neither of us have a large family so we don't expect a large return. Second, planning a wedding with an expectation of a return is a terrible way to celebrate love, and even worse to budget. All this changed when the love of my life, Arthur, really, really wants a wedding. I tried to reason with him ("Let's just take some wedding pictures and go for honeymoon!"). We debated, debated, and then debated some more. I finally cave and we reached a decision to have a destination wedding as long as we can combine travel and wedding at the same time I'm happy; and as long as Arthur's parents can make it to the wedding then Arthur is happy. We (more like I) started to gather information about where to have our wedding. The Vision: The Destination Arthur and I have never been to Mexico before. We badly wanted to visit the Carribean side of Mexico so we started looking at Cancun and Riviera Maya. We leaned towards Riviera Maya since we heard that Cancun is a party central and very busy. Riviera Maya is busy, but not as crazy as Cancun. So, where in Riviera Maya? We started walking in and talking to different travel agents. Things that we found out and started to consider: 1) Most (if not all) international flights arrive and depart at the Cancun airport. So the further south from Cancun, the longer the shuttle to the resort. 2) We want nightlife and activities nearby. 3) The resort's beach cannot be rocky. 4) We wanted direct flights for the group because we don't want the hassle of delayed flights. 5) The cheapest way to travel from Vancouver to Mexico's east coast is via package deals (try separating them and it will cost you an arm and leg). There are only 3 airlines that travel directly to Riviera Maya: Sunwing, Westjet and Air Transat. 6) We want a resort that we can stay in one and play in many. 7) Below $1,700 after all taxes and fees per person. We don't think anyone will be able to afford it past that amount. 8) Good reviews from BestDestinationWedding, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Oyster, etc. Let me tell ya, #7 is pretty hard to achieve especially when you combine all 8 criteria and we are travelling from Vancouver! I started getting worried since brides on the BestDestinationWedding website (most of the brides are from US) are reserving their wedding 1.5 to 2 years ahead! How do they do it when airlines don't have their tickets out yet?? Well, US brides can book the ceremony and reception prior to booking the flights. Further-worse, Vancouver brides (as opposed to Toronto) brides have even less airline options that are much pricier! Getting pricing from travel agencies 1.5 to 2 years ahead are like pulling teeth! Makes it so hard to plan when and where to go! One agent told us to be patient and calm down and she will get us the pricing when she can. The Decision: Riu Palace Riviera Maya One of the independent travel agents suggested June or July or October or November, 2014 because those months were considered lower seasons. We asked the agent to provide us quotes for resorts around that time of the year. The prices were atronomical and it seemed like our wedding plans won't fly (pun intended) at all. Other travel agents tell us they can't get pricing for us until 11 months prior to the travel date so they can't give us quotes for November, 2014. I'm not super smart, but what I have is that I'm relentless. Time to put matters in my own hands. Once we narrow down to 5 different resorts that are within our criteria, I emailed Sunwing for October or November. We know that Westjet is nice but cost more and AirTransat asks you to talk to their rather useless affiliated travel agents, so we directed most of our attention to Sunwing. (Note 1: We - yes, we plan together - I am a firm believer that the man should be involved and as much as possible with everything in our relationship. A wedding is a union of TWO PEOPLE, not a fairy tale that one person insists on the other. Note 2: Sunwing was the only airline out of the 3 that has package deals for the Riu chain) We started emailing travel agents and Sunwing in the spring of 2013. You may think that's like two years to plan for a wedding, but like anything in life, planning MAKES THINGS RUN MORE SMOOTHLY. I love how people call for appointments last minute and thinks that the store will have a time for them either after work hours or during the weekends. We kept in touch with Sunwing and around fall, 2013 they said they are having a promotion on Riu Palace Riviera Maya and gave us a quote. We went back on our criteria list: 1) How far from Cancun? Not bad, 45 mins. 2) Nightlife and activities nearby? Playa del Carmen is 5 mins taxi ride away. Cozumel is a ferry ride away. 3) The resort's beach? No rocks 4) Direct flights? According to Sunwing, yes. 6) A resort that we can stay in one and play in many? Yes, 5 other resorts nearby. 7) Below $1,700 after all taxes and fees per person? Yes. 8) Good reviews from BestDestinationWedding, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Oyster, etc? Not the best, but pretty darn good for the price. The other contender that we were looking at was Barcelo Maya Palace Deluxe. That resort was looks prettier, but it costs more (It's like $400 per person more!), has a rocky beach, and there's not as many things to do around that area. At the end, we decided for the sake of our and other guests' wallet, we went with Riu Palace Riviera Maya (RPRM). We didn't go with Riu Palace Mexico (RPM) nearby because they recently renovated and has that hot purple and pink, with silver and black color scheme and we just don't think it will look pretty in our pictures. RPRM has one more bar and has that colonial feel to the decor which we hope we can capture in our pictures. The Planning: I Love It When a Plan Comes Together! I have to give tremendous amount of credit to the brides that contributed on the BestDestinationWedding.com's forum to make this wedding a reality. I don't think my wedding will be as awesome as I can make it without other brides' contribution. Color scheme: This was a toughie. I don't like the cliched starfishes, seashells, aqua, hot pink or orange colors that I have seen in other destination weddings. Maybe it is because it is too girly and too fairytale-like? Anyways, I literally searched for pictures day in and day out of other options that catches my eye. It took me months before I finally narrow down something that matched my criteria. Invitation: We wanted to make the invitation as small and cheap as possible because we find most Chinese people do not read invitation cards. We decided to have a plane ticket per guest as our invitation for the destination wedding and included most of the pricing and details on our website to reduce waste. We wanted to make the airline ticket as authentic as possible so we made our own airlines. We used black and white tickets because it resembles a real plane ticket and it is also one of our wedding colors. I downloaded the template from the forum, but made my own on Publisher. Why? Because Powerpoint is meant for making presentations and Publisher is meant for publishing documents! Our printer was not happy these days so we thought we may have to bite the bullet and go to a print shop to do this. Fortunately, our building manager has a print shop and he was super nice enough to print and cut our invites for free. Website: We made our website and video at the same time as our invitation. Other married couple that we knew had other people make their wedding websites for them or pay for a service online to make it. I don't know anyone that can help me make one and I don't want to pay so I researched extensively to see if there's a WYSIWYG website maker. After some research I found that Wix should do the trick for a free and easy to make website. I conceptualize how I wanted the website to look like with Arthur and tell him to run along with the project. Every now and then I review how the website is doing, give him a few more pointers and tell him to run along again. At the end, he did a good job. As usual, I still have to spend time on editing the wording though. If you want to see the video, you can check it out here. Video: I had a concept of having some sort of intro to my website to make it have more pizzazz. Initially I was thinking of making a video with the whole song, but we don't think anyone really wants to watch it and we don't want to bore them so we decided to make just a 1 min clip. Filming took about 3 hours because we went back home to eat and watch some TV (so the filming was about 1 hour max). The dancing was just something I whipped up, but had to be super simple for Arthur to follow. I guess people really liked it because last time I checked there were 300 views. WHICH MEANS THEY SEE OUR WEBSITE, BUT JUST DIDN'T BOTHER TO READ THE DETAILS OR USE THE RSVP! See? What do I tell ya? Don't waste money on things that nobody cares about. They ended up emailing or calling you anyways. That was the end of the beginning of our wedding planning. I'm almost done with our passport. Will post later. XOXO, Elsa
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Is there anyone out there looking into getting married at the Sandos Playacar. My fiance and I are interested in this location and are just wondering about others experience with planning.
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Hello! I am a Riu Palace Mexico bride here to say hello!!!! Jan 2015 can't come soon enough!
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North Vs. Central Beach--Gran Porto Real
forevertogether posted a blog entry in forevertogether's Blog
Gran Porto Real Brides Which wedding venue is better for a beach wedding??? North Beach or Central Beach We are having our wedding here on 01/07/15 and have reserved our date, but I am not sure which location to choose!!! Thanks!! Bambi -
Hey Brides to be!!!!! I am so excited to be planning my destination wedding--01/07/15!!! We have reserved the Gran Porto Real--anyone have any comments about this resort/Playa Del Carmen??
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So excited for our wedding Jan. 14 in Tulum. We are having trouble choosing a venue. We saw Ahau and La Zebra. Both looked great, but now are thinking of Be Tulum and El Pez. We like El Pez since the ceremony location is private, but like the other locations for the receptions. Our coordinator thinks Be Tulum may be a good spot since it's towards the end of the beach and semi-private ceremony location. I'm not sure if it looks to modern. 90 guests. Any other brides with big weddings?
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"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever." — The Notebook www.photofeelingsrivieramaya.com www.photofeelingsrivieramaya.com
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Hello brides, This is my first post here on BDW! I have come across a dilemma and am in desperate need of your opinions and advice. I have fallen in love with photos that I have seen of weddings taking place at Xcaret eco park. Although I went to Mexico last month for sight inspections I didn't visit the park as at that time I was not considering it for the wedding. During the site inspection we settled on Moon Palace for a late December, 2014 wedding. However, seeing the photos now I am very strongly considering changing everything (we haven't signed any contracts yet) and having the wedding at the park instead. My two caveats are that I don't like the Occidental Grand Xcaret connected to the park and would need to a find a different hotel that's located nearby, and I would need a Jewish ceremony to take place at the park and being that the park is famous for its chapel I don't know if it's possible. However, I did some research and have come across the Ponds location which I think might work for a Jewish ceremony. If anyone has any insights could you please share your thoughts on this? Is it worth having the wedding at Xcaret? Would it still be beautiful if we had the ceremony at the ponds (all of the videos and photos that I've seen were from the chapel)? Has anyone seen the ponds location and can shed some light on it? Also, I don't even know whether or not it is possible to have a Jewish ceremony at this park so would love some insights on this as well. Lastly, if anyone can suggest a hotel that's conveniently located and is nice I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance!!!
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“The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.” ― Marilyn Monroe
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Hi everyone! I need some advice please! I'm getting married at Barcelo Maya Palace this July. I was originally estimating only about 50 guests to come and I was planning to do the ceremony and reception on Coral Beach. Now it looks like my guest list has doubled and Coral Beach cannot accommodate this size. Can anyone send me pictures or let me know what beach is the best? I heard Playa Azul is very nice, but its on the other end of the resort. But, I heard the back up is a banquet. Which I do not want. Also, there's not much lighting, so I would have to pay extra for lights. I was thinking about Palmeras Beach at the Tropical because its right next door to the Palace. Has anyone ever been there or have had their ceremony and reception? My ceremony will be at 5pm. I just don't want a bunch of random people in my photos during the ceremony and reception. Also, any suggestions on where to get centerpieces down there? Something affordable. Thanks! Stacie
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This site has been a great resource for information! I am getting married in the next year and am looking for Boutique hotels in Playa Del Carmen on the Beach. Would like a hotel that may provide a meal plan option for 2 daily meals (breakfast + Lunch or Dinner), Close walking distance to 5th avenue. Small, beautiful, quiet resort that will allow children. Does this exist? Thank you!
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